Housing Minister passes responsibility for long delayed Wellington Kiwibuild development onto developer

Housing Minister Megan Woods has passed on responsibility for a long delayed Wellington Kiwibuild development onto the developer. 

Ms Woods said anyone wanting answers about Monark apartment delays can ask Kiwibuild for the developer's contact details, as the contracts are with them and not Kiwibuild.

It comes after 1 NEWS last night revealed the repeatedly delayed apartments, featuring 44 apartments sold via the Kiwibuild programme, will now not be completed until June 2022 after originally being scheduled to be ready in July this year.

The developer cited Covid-19 for the most recent delay, which has some of the Kiwibuild buyers nervous they may miss out altogether, with the new completion date just one month before the sunset clause comes into effect - where the developer or buyers can terminate the contract.

National MP Nicola Willis questioned Ms Woods about this in Parliament today, asking what Kiwibuild can do to help concerned buyers in the development.

"The contracts are not with Kiwibuild, they are with the developer," Ms Woods answered.

"But as I made publicly clear yesterday, there are a number of purchasers who the developer has released prior to the sunset clause.

"If those people want to get in touch with my office I am more than happy to put them in touch with the developer."

Ms Willis then asked again if the Housing Minister would do "anything to help these first-home buyers other than passing on the contact details of the property developer."

"This is an arrangement that is no longer used within Kiwibuild, but what I would like to point out is this is still 44 home buyers that are still looking at the delivery of a first-home via Kiwibuild," Ms Woods replied.

She then went on to attack National's record on providing Kiwis with affordable homes when they were last in Government.